WASHINGTON-More than 9,000 "visitors" attended CUNA's "Don't Tax My Credit Union," campaign. The association held a "virtual rally" online last week to highlight the importance of the tax exemption.
Bringing together CUNA staff, CU and league representatives from across the nation-as well as CU members-the half-hour virtual rally focused on how CUs and their members would be affected if credit unions' tax status is changed. The event was live-streamed via DontTaxMyCreditUnion.org, as well as on the website of Washington political newspaper The Hill.
More than 9,000 unique visitors logged into the DTMCU.org website during the rally, 70% of whom had never been there before, CUNA said, adding that many more viewed the rally on TheHill.com, which also streamed the event. And that doesn't account for the fact that many of the "visitors" to the rally were conference rooms full of people that would show up as only one "visitor," so actual attendance is impossible to measure. But if the number of e-mails (2,300) and Tweets (1,500) that were sent to Congress during the rally are any indication, CUNA said it is very pleased with the participation.
One argument the banking lobby has raised in support of lifting the CU tax exemption is that the new funds would add much-needed revenue to the government. But Bill Hampel, chief economist at CUNA, noted that the total amount raised over the course of a year would only be a drop in the bucket-enough only to fund the government for about 90 minutes, he said.
And because CUs already operate under a number of restrictions, many CUs-if taxed-might just find it easier to convert to bank charters, Hampel noted.
Ryan Donovan, CUNA's SVP of legislative affairs, also spoke at the virtual rally. Donovan pointed out that 96 million CU members are behind the "Don't Tax" initiative, and more than a million contacts have been made with legislators in the past few weeks supporting CUs' current tax status.
"We're going to be vigilant," said Donovan. "There's no one on Capitol Hill saying we need to tax credit unions-the only people sending that message are the banks."
Despite all that enthusiasm from members, Donovan wasn't optimistic that tax reform was going to be accomplished soon.
"Advocacy is a long game, so we need to be engaged now and be ready to stay engaged throughout the entire process," he said. "Congress is not acting very efficiently these days, so tax reform could take ... all the way into the next Congress."
The rally-which also featured stories from real credit union members and examples of how CUs help them-coincided with CUNA's "Hike the Hill" going on now, as CU representatives from across the country are in Washington to lobby their legislators. Viewers of the virtual rally also got a look at CUNA's social media efforts and saw the association's social media coordinator live tracking the countless #DontTaxMyCreditUnion tweets.
CUNA President Bill Cheney spoke near the end of the event, reminding everyone that, "Credit unions use money to help people, They don't use people to make money."
